It was my Great-Great Grandfather. Early 1800’s.
The commune was started in 1826. After a two or three years people realized what it was about and most left. For some reason Robert Owen thought he could alleviate poverty with collectivism. Sounds like a number of them were similar to the OWS crowd of today!
In 1825, such an experiment was attempted under the direction of his disciple, Abram Combe, at Orbiston near Glasgow; and in the next year Owen himself began another at New Harmony, Indiana, U.S., sold to him by George Rapp. After a trial of about two years both failed completely, due to Owen’s lack of presence to govern either of the communities.[citation needed] Neither of them was a pauper experiment; but it must be said that the members were of the most motley description, many worthy people of the highest aims being mixed with vagrants, adventurers, and crotchety, wrongheaded enthusiasts, or in the words of Owen’s son “a heterogeneous collection of radicals... honest latitudinarians, and lazy theorists, with a sprinkling of unprincipled sharpers thrown in.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen